Money Mag: Mesa = Best Big City in The Southwest

THE 5 BEST BIG CITIES Ian Salisbury @salisburyian 

In addition to the usual list of top towns, Time Inc-owned Money Magazine this year crunched the numbers on urban centers with more than 300,000 residents—63 in alll. Mesa has 461,000.

Phoenix New Times has this to say: "This population requirement quickly rules out the majority of Arizona's 91 cities and towns, including Tempe, Gilbert, Glendale, Chandler, and even Scottsdale, . . . Speaking of people, here are a few associated with Mesa who are all too familiar to locals: Russell Pearce (the recalled ex-state Senate President who thought it would be cool to forcibly sterilize women on Medicaid), Ryan Giroux (the white supremacist who shot six people in Mesa last year), and Travis Alexander (the man Jodi Arias murdered in his Mesa home) . . . "

As with their Best Places list, big city rankings put a premium on a robust job market, affordable housing, and ­factors such as accessibility to health care, culture, and open space. they also gave extra points to places with low crime and strong public schools [or strong compared to Arizona standards]

Here's the news put out by the Newsroom for the City of Mesa yesterday:
Mesa ranked Best Big City in the Southwest 
Post Date:08/18/2015 3:04 PMAccording to the press release, City Manager Chris Brady had this to say "“For those of us that have chosen to make Mesa our home, these rankings come as no surprise . . . However, it is always gratifying to receive third party endorsements and acknowledgement.” 
Mayor John Giles was quoted as saying: “I agree, Mesa is the best big city in the Southwest and we are only getting better,” . . . Mesa is a great place to live and raise a family. Mesa Arts Center and our Parks and Recreation Department are national leaders while Apple, Inc. and the new light rail extension make our city attractive to the millennial workforce.”

Go to link >> http://www.mesaaz.gov/Home/Components/News/News/422/

Here's what Phoenix New Times had to say about that on Monday 24 Aug:

NO, MESA ISN'T THE SOUTHWEST'S BEST BIG CITY

Readers of this blog will note that affordable, transit-oriented and form-based zoning projects were the subject of a previous post back in March, as well as other posts on investment, smart growth, arts/culture, and creative place making on July 7, and August 1, 5 and 6.

Your MesaZona blogger isn't going to nit-pick over details and sources of stats or quibble with shortcoming - let's just call it some welcome good news that comes with other good news posted on this site.

Yours truly did want to get back to some 411 from last year with the source and a link to the article in the middle of the excerpt:

"Hands down, Mesa, Arizona, is the most conservative city in America, one of the last great holdouts in conservatism among American big cities, and life there is pretty good."

"Across the nation, conservative Republican cities are often beating Democrats at their own big-city game, finding innovative ways of funding public development projects and creating great places to live."

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Mesa-conservative-Republican-cities/2014/09/18/id/595529/

Mesa is on a growth trend, according to the Weekly Standard's Ethan Epstein, who writes of Mesa and other conservative-leaning cities:
"Across the country, Republican cities are building new infrastructure and even embracing trendy liberal ideas like  NEW URBANISM all while managing to keep costs in line and municipal workforces small and cost-effective," Epstein said.

And while the big cities that have been run by Democrats, such as Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles, are having major money problems, "America's conservative cities are showing that there's another way."

Boasting a new Arts Center, the largest in Arizona; a light rail system connecting Mesa to Phoenix and Tempe; a new Chicago Cubs spring training center, and new parks and improvements to its downtown area, Mesa has avoided heavy debt by paying for these projects not with classic Democratic property tax increases as the city has no primary property tax.
Rather, the improvements are being paid with project-specific bond issues — $100 million in 1998 for the Arts Center, $170 million for infrastructure repairs, $70 million for parks, and $130 million for public safety and streets.
These measures leave Mesa with an enviable Aa2 credit rating from Moody's. The city had only a $1.5 billion debt, that's now increased  times with the last voter-approved bond issue.
Mesa City Council members work part-time, making about half the salaries Fresno or Phoenix city council members make.
City Councilman Dave Richins told Politico, "People are OK with investing in their communities. . . They trust tangible results. 
We look to the voters to say what they would like to see done in the city."
"Across the country, innovative mayors are showing that Republicans can govern urban areas effectively and innovatively — and indeed, that oftentimes they can execute traditionally 'liberal' policies with greater discipline and efficacy than Democratic-run cities can manage," Epstein wrote.







http://time.com/money/3996659/best-places-outdoor-lovers-2015/